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Challenge
State faced with implementing an intricate ESA program quickly
The COVID-19 pandemic brought learning gaps that presented challenges for families and students nationwide. States were forced to create innovative solutions to target the problem and fill the cracks that came with remote learning; for the Ohio State Legislature, that meant creating the Afterschool Child Enrichment (ACE) educational savings account program in 2021, funded by the state’s share of federal CARES Act coronavirus relief funds.
The ESA program’s goal was to provide educational resources to eligible students, to help them recover from the impact of the pandemic by connecting them with resources they may otherwise not receive—after-school camps, music lessons, educational technologies, and more.
In charge of administering the program, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) needed to verify student grant economic eligibility, ensure the funds were spent only on allowable activities and services, and gather comprehensive data for the state legislature.
Where government agencies often use paper-based or siloed mixed-technology systems for ESA program administration, DEW realized these options would be time-consuming for their staff, would not accurately capture real-time data, and could lead to misappropriated funds and even termination of potentially beneficial initiatives.
Given the intricate allocation and expenditure requirements, along with tight timelines of only 30 days to establish the program and 120 days to begin accepting applications, DEW sought a trusted partner capable of quickly standing up and managing the complex program.
Solution
Merits for Education
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce set out to find an end-to-end solution, ultimately selecting Merit’s Software with a Service to facilitate the recruitment of providers and payment of claims.
From providing a digital wallet for each family and public outreach campaigns, to recruiting education marketplace service providers, and building ready-to-view dashboards and reports—Merit developed and delivered program administration and support systems, with a combination of trusted technology and teams.
Standing Up the Digital Infrastructure
DEW went digital with the ACE program to ensure that participants had easy access to participate and could minimize lengthy paperwork delays when submitting applications and utilizing funds.
Merit provided both an informational website where families could learn more about and apply to the program, as well as a program portal, accessible both via web and mobile app. The Ohio ACE portal acted as a single destination for families to manage balances, make pre-qualified purchases from service providers, and submit claims for additional expenditures.
Merit’s verified identity platform managed portal access by delivering digital credentials to families who had been accepted to the program, allowing parents to manage multiple children’s funds in a single account.
Distributing and Ensuring Correct Expenditure of Funds
With millions of dollars of federal funding in the program, Merit held and managed the disbursement of the program’s funds through the online platform via a digital wallet for each family.
Funds were easily spent on the online education marketplace, where goods and services had been pre-qualified and could be filtered by location and service type to make shopping easy and straightforward for parents.
The program also allowed for funds to be spent on any allowable activity from other providers, by submitting a claim on the Ohio ACE portal. Merit’s team diligently reviewed all claims to confirm funds were spent only on activities and services that met strict program guidelines to ensure the appropriate use of education funds.
Midway through the program, the state legislature doubled grant amounts and expanded eligibility, increasing the per child credit amount from $500 to $1,000. While this was an exciting adjustment for children and their families, this could be a challenging pivot for other vendors. As a true partner who understands large-scale government programs, Merit worked with the Department to make the adjustments within the administrative and support systems to facilitate the changes and adjust the processes.
Recruiting Service Providers and Amplifying Program Awareness
DEW ran a comprehensive marketing outreach campaign to reach families of eligible children. For months, potential program participants would encounter program promotion on cable TV, social media, online and mobile display ads, on the radio, on bus shelters and billboards in an effort to increase awareness about the opportunity and encourage them to apply. Merit also contributed additional print, web and television media coverage to their already extensive efforts across the state.
Merit’s teams proactively connected with local and national businesses to recruit educational service providers to join the online education marketplace. By building out a network of vendors’ products and services that were pre-verified simplified spending program funds for families who would not need to go through the claim process. Vendors, meanwhile, would easily be able to accept, process and collect payments, with simplified access to the network of program participants.
